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Giordino motioned to a waiter. "Did you pick up on the voice? It sounded unnatural, as if it was a recording."
"Apparently, Mr. Rathbone was handing us a bill of goods."
"It would be nice to know what game he's playing."
When the waiter brought over another round of drinks and asked them if they were ready to be seated for dinner, they both nodded and followed him into the dining room. As they were seated, Pitt asked the waiter, "What is your name?"
"Marcus."
"Marcus, do you often experience earth tremors here in the jungle?"
"Oh, si, senor. But not until three, maybe four, years ago when they began moving up the river."
"The tremors move?" asked Giordino, puzzled.
"Si, very slowly.
"In what direction?"
"They started at the mouth of the river at San Juan del Norte. Now they shake the earth in the jungle above El Castillo."
"Definitely not an eerie phenomenon caused by Mother Nature."
Giordino sighed. "Where is Sheena the Jungle Queen when you need her?"
"The gods will never let man find their secret, not in the jungle," said Marcus, looking around him as if expecting an assassin to creep up on him. "No man who goes in, comes out alive."
"When did men start disappearing in the jungle?" asked Pitt.
"About a year ago, a university expedition went in to study the wildlife, and vanished. No trace of them was ever found. The jungle guards its secrets well."
For the second time that evening, Pitt looked at Giordino and they both cracked tight smiles. "Oh, I don't know," Pitt said slowly. "Secrets have an intriguing habit of becoming revealed."
28
The fortress commanded the top of an isolated hill that looked more like a huge grassy mound surrounded by several different varieties of trees. El Castillo de la Inmaculada Concepcion, castle of the immaculate conception, was designed along the lines of a Vauban fortification, with bastions on each of its four corners. It was in amazingly good shape after withstanding the onslaught of torrential rains for four hundred years.
"I guess you know," said Giordino as he lay on his back and stared up at the carpet of stars, "that breaking and entering are not in our line of work."
Pitt was stretched out beside him, peering through a nightscope at the fence surrounding the fortress of El Castillo. "Not only that, but NUMA doesn't give us hazard pay."
"We had better call the admiral and Rudi Gunn and give them an update on our adventures. Once we go underground, the phone will be useless."
Pitt took the satellite phone from his knapsack and began dialing a number. "Sandecker is an early riser, so he hits the bed early. Rudi should be handy, since we're only an hour behind Washington."
Five minutes later, Pitt closed the connection. "Rudi is going to have a helicopter standing by at San Carlos if we have to beat a hasty exit."
Giordino returned his attention to the fortress. "I don't see any stairways, only ramps."
"Stone slopes were more efficient for hauling cannons up and down from the ramparts," said Pitt. "Builders in those days knew as much about building strongholds as contractors today know about constructing skyscrapers."
"See anything that resembles an air vent to a tunnel?"
"It must come up through the central battlement."
Giordino was glad there was no moon. "So how do we get over the fence, past the security cameras, security alarms, security guards and the dogs?"
"First things first. We can't deal with the security until we penetrate the fence," Pitt replied, quietly absorbed in studying the fortress grounds.
